Sanctuary Movement

Historical Background

The civil wars in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador (1974–96) brought an unprecedented scale of violence that resulted in the deaths of over 250,000 people, including Archbishop of El Salvador Oscar Romero, assassinated in 1980. Central American conflicts forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes in search of refuge either in other parts of their countries or abroad. It is estimated that over 2 million settled in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, mostly as unauthorized immigrants.

Although the U.S. Refugee Act of 1980 gave all those fearing persecution in their home country a right to apply for asylum, the applicants from “enemy” communist/socialist countries were favored, while those feeing right-wing U.S.-supported regimes were usually denied asylum. Categorized as “economic immigrants,” they were, if apprehended, liable for deportation. Salvadorans and Guatemalans were thus discriminated against, as opposed to Nicaraguans, which was reflected in the asylum application approval rates.

The Development of the Movement

The Sanctuary Movement started as a mostly local interfaith initiative. It was born in Tucson, Arizona, thanks to several people of different religious denominations (such as Quaker Jim Corbett, Catholic Frather Ricardo Elford, and Presbyterian Reverend John Fife), with the help of local immigration-rights group the Manzo Area Council and the Tucson Ecumenical Council.

Embracing the Judeo-Christian tradition and the ancient practice of sanctuary, as well as following the examples of similar initiatives in the past (such as the 19th-century Underground Railroad and the sanctuary given to those escaping the draft during the Vietnam War), the movement soon expanded into a nationwide network. Sanctuary Movement activists justified their actions as the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution but also claimed that the U.S. government was violating national as well as international law.

One of the first activists was Jim Corbett, a Quaker rancher from Tucson, who in the summer of 1981, moved by the personal experience of a friend, started his struggle to bail out as many Salvadorans as possible from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) detention centers, initially accommodating them in his house. Deeply disturbed by the way the administration handled Salvadorans, which often violated their rights, he soon established a network of people willing to assist the immigrants and help them cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

The first church to officially offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants was Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson. Reverend John Fife initially obtained the consent of the congregation's elders to shelter the refugees in the church building, and then the church approved the idea of publicly declaring sanctuary. On March 24, 1982—the second anniversary of Archbishop Romero's death—Fife publically opened the church for the immigrants and hung out two banners in Spanish (“This is the Sanctuary of God for the Oppressed of Central America” and “INS: Don't profane the sanctuary”). The event, which can be considered the formal beginning of the movement, gained much media interest. Several other churches also agreed to provide sanctuary.

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